{"id":{"repo_id":"missouri","oai_identifier":"oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/9267"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/missouri/oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/9267","repository":{"repo_id":"missouri","name":"University of Missouri","base_url":"https://mospace.umsystem.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Where the dancer meets her divine: dance as religious experience in the lives of Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan","abstract":"This thesis begins with a simple question: Can seemingly-secular dance be a religious experience for an individual dancer? I investigate this question through specifically examining the lives of dancers Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, both creators of influential new styles of dance in the late nineteenth century. I begin with a study of the religio-cultural atmosphere of modern society from which Fuller's and Duncan's dances emerged. With a sense of the religio-cultural atmosphere established, I then turn my attention to Fuller and Duncan. In order to understand how dance might be a religious experience for both, I focus my attention on those encounters that Fuller and Duncan viewed as especially important, crucial to their understandings of the relationship between the world and their selves--meaningful, religious, and/or spiritual. Finally, I turn to the idea of dance as religious experience. Here, I engage with both dance theory (José Gil's paradoxical body) and religious studies scholarship (William James' definition of religion and Catherine Bell's ritualization) in order to situate a religious experience within a dancing body. Ultimately, I conclude that dance was indeed a site of religious experience for Fuller and Duncan--an experience created through their dynamic processes of embedding and disembedding in the religious ideas and institutions of modern society.","abstract_html":"This thesis begins with a simple question: Can seemingly-secular dance be a religious experience for an individual dancer? I investigate this question through specifically examining the lives of dancers Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, both creators of influential new styles of dance in the late nineteenth century. I begin with a study of the religio-cultural atmosphere of modern society from which Fuller's and Duncan's dances emerged. With a sense of the religio-cultural atmosphere established, I then turn my attention to Fuller and Duncan. In order to understand how dance might be a religious experience for both, I focus my attention on those encounters that Fuller and Duncan viewed as especially important, crucial to their understandings of the relationship between the world and their selves--meaningful, religious, and/or spiritual. Finally, I turn to the idea of dance as religious experience. Here, I engage with both dance theory (José Gil's paradoxical body) and religious studies scholarship (William James' definition of religion and Catherine Bell's ritualization) in order to situate a religious experience within a dancing body. Ultimately, I conclude that dance was indeed a site of religious experience for Fuller and Duncan--an experience created through their dynamic processes of embedding and disembedding in the religious ideas and institutions of modern society.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Milligan, Katherine, 1984-"],"institution":"University of Missouri--Columbia","degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters","degree_discipline":"Religious studies (MU)","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Callahan, Richard J., 1967-"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010","date_published":"2010","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:08:09Z","subjects":[],"languages":["eng","English"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/9267"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/9267","href":"https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/9267","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10355/9267","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Callahan, Richard J., 1967-"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Milligan, Katherine, 1984-"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2010-12-08T17:47:58Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2010-12-08T17:47:58Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2010"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Religious studies (MU)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]},{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/9267"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10355/9267"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Aug. 18, 2010).","The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.","Thesis advisor: Dr. Richard J. 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In order to understand how dance might be a religious experience for both, I focus my attention on those encounters that Fuller and Duncan viewed as especially important, crucial to their understandings of the relationship between the world and their selves--meaningful, religious, and/or spiritual. Finally, I turn to the idea of dance as religious experience. Here, I engage with both dance theory (José Gil's paradoxical body) and religious studies scholarship (William James' definition of religion and Catherine Bell's ritualization) in order to situate a religious experience within a dancing body. Ultimately, I conclude that dance was indeed a site of religious experience for Fuller and Duncan--an experience created through their dynamic processes of embedding and disembedding in the religious ideas and institutions of modern society."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Where the dancer meets her divine: dance as religious experience in the lives of Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Callahan, Richard J., 1967-"],"dc:creator":["Milligan, Katherine, 1984-"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2010-12-08T17:47:58Z"],"dc:date.available":["2010-12-08T17:47:58Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2010"],"dc:description":["Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on Aug. 18, 2010).","The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.","Thesis advisor: Dr. Richard J. Callahan, Jr.","Includes bibliographical references.","M.A. University of Missouri--Columbia 2010.","Dissertations, Academic -- University of Missouri--Columbia -- Religious studies."],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis begins with a simple question: Can seemingly-secular dance be a religious experience for an individual dancer? I investigate this question through specifically examining the lives of dancers Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan, both creators of influential new styles of dance in the late nineteenth century. I begin with a study of the religio-cultural atmosphere of modern society from which Fuller's and Duncan's dances emerged. With a sense of the religio-cultural atmosphere established, I then turn my attention to Fuller and Duncan. In order to understand how dance might be a religious experience for both, I focus my attention on those encounters that Fuller and Duncan viewed as especially important, crucial to their understandings of the relationship between the world and their selves--meaningful, religious, and/or spiritual. Finally, I turn to the idea of dance as religious experience. Here, I engage with both dance theory (José Gil's paradoxical body) and religious studies scholarship (William James' definition of religion and Catherine Bell's ritualization) in order to situate a religious experience within a dancing body. Ultimately, I conclude that dance was indeed a site of religious experience for Fuller and Duncan--an experience created through their dynamic processes of embedding and disembedding in the religious ideas and institutions of modern society."],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/9267"],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/10355/9267"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Missouri--Columbia"],"dc:title":["Where the dancer meets her divine: dance as religious experience in the lives of Loie Fuller and Isadora Duncan"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Religious studies (MU)"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:08:09Z"}